Stiffness controlled abradeable seal system with max phase materials and methods of making same

Abstract

A stiffness controlled abradeable seal system for a gas turbine engine includes a cantilevered arm that supports one of a rotating seal surface and a static seal surface, a stiffness of the cantilevered arm controlled to achieve a desired operational temperature at a seal interface.

What is claimed: 
     
       1. A stiffness controlled abradeable seal system for a gas turbine engine, comprising: a static seal surface in contact with a rotating seal surface at a seal interface; and a cantilevered arm that supports one of said rotating seal surface and said static seal surface, a stiffness of said cantilevered arm determined to achieve a desired operational temperature that is maintained within a desired temperature range at said seal interface during operation of the gas turbine engine, wherein said seal interface is an abradeable seal interface that includes a solid lubricant material comprising at least one metal combined with at least one member of a class of ternary compounds,
 wherein said at least one metal combined with said at least one member of a class of ternary compounds is defined by the general composition M.sub.n+1AX.sub.n, wherein M is an early transition metal selected from groups IIIB, IVB, VB, and VIB, A is an element selected from groups IIIA, IVA, VA, VIA, and VIIA, X is either carbon or nitrogen, and n is an integer between 1 and 3, and 
 wherein said seal interface includes an about 25% volume fraction of said at least one metal to minimize friction coefficient. 
 
     
     
       2. The system as recited in  claim 1 , wherein said seal interface is an interface of a rotor blade tip with a blade outer air seal. 
     
     
       3. The system as recited in  claim 1 , wherein said seal interface extends from a rotor disk. 
     
     
       4. The system as recited in  claim 1 , wherein said cantilevered arm extends from a coverplate mounted to a rotor disk. 
     
     
       5. The system as recited in  claim 1 , wherein said cantilevered arm includes a continuous hoop geometry. 
     
     
       6. The system as recited in  claim 1 , wherein said cantilevered arm includes an arc segment geometry. 
     
     
       7. A method for manufacturing a seal interface within a stiffness controlled abradeable seal system, comprising: determining a stiffness of a cantilevered arm via material selection that supports one of a rotating seal surface and a static seal surface that form a seal interface to achieve a desired operational temperature at the seal interface, wherein said seal interface is an abradeable seal interface that includes a solid lubricant material; determining a wear coefficient at the seal interface prior to determining the stiffness; and controlling a volume fraction of solid lubricant material to about 25% volume fraction comprising at least one metal combined with at least one member of a class of ternary compounds to control the wear coefficient via the solid lubricant material. 
     
     
       8. The method as recited in  claim 7 , wherein controlling the wear coefficient includes controlling the volume fraction of the at least one metal combined with the at least one member of the class of ternary compounds defined by the general composition M.sub.n+1AX.sub.n, wherein M is an early transition metal selected from groups IBB, IVB, VB, and VIB, A is an element selected from groups IIIA, IVA, VA, VIA, and VIIA, X is either carbon or nitrogen, and n is an integer between 1 and 3. 
     
     
       9. A component seal interface within a stiffness controlled abradeable seal system for a gas turbine engine, comprising: a solid lubricant material, said solid lubricant material includes comprising an about at least 25% volume fraction of at least one metal combined with at least one member of a class of ternary compounds defined by the general composition M.sub.n+1AX.sub.n, wherein M is an early transition metal selected from groups IIIB, IVB, VB, and VIB, A is an element selected from groups IIIA, IVA, VA, VIA, and VIIA, X is either carbon or nitrogen, and n is an integer between 1 and 3, to minimize friction coefficient. 
     
     
       10. The abradeable seal interface as recited in  claim 9 , wherein said seal interface is an interface of a rotor blade tip with a blade outer air seal. 
     
     
       11. The system as recited in  claim 1 , wherein said seal interface includes a layered hexagonal solid with two formula units per unit cell in which near close-packed layers of early transition metals are interleaved with layers of pure group A-element atoms with the C and/or N-atoms filling the octahedral sites of early transition metal layers. 
     
     
       12. The abradeable seal interface as recited in  claim 9 , wherein said seal interface includes a layered hexagonal solid with two formula units per unit cell in which near close-packed layers of early transition metals are interleaved with layers of pure group A-element atoms with the C and/or N-atoms filling the octahedral sites of early transition metal layers.